Presents an analysis of the nature, causes, and significance of violence in the second half of the twentieth century. This title also re-examines the relationship between war, politics, violence, and power.

Considering humankind from the perspective of the actions of which it is capable, this text addresses diminishing human agency and political freedom - the paradox that as human powers increase through technology and inquiry, we are less equipped to control the consequences of our actions.

Throughout history, some books have changed the world. They have transformed the way we see ourselves - and each other. They have inspired debate, dissent, war and revolution. They have enlightened, outraged, provoked and comforted. They have enriched lives - and destroyed them. Now Penguin brings you the works of the great thinkers, pioneers, radicals and visionaries whose ideas shook...

The essence of the correspondence between Arendt and Scholem can be said to lie in three things. Above all it provides an intimate account of how two great intellectuals try to come to terms with being both German and Jewish, and how to think about Germany before, during, and after the Holocaust. They also debate the issue of what it means to be Jewish in the post-Holocaust world whether in New York or in Jerusalem. Finally, the specter of Benjamin haunts the work and in a sense the letters are as much about Benjamin as the other two questions since his life and tragic death epitomize them both. Arendt and Scholem's letters on these weighty questions are lightened by more routine exchanges: on travel itineraries, lunch or dinner parties where important people were present, and so forth. These daily details are woven throughout the correspondence and provide vivid biographical information about Arendt and Scholem that is unavailable in any other source.

Few thinkers have addressed the political horrors and ethical complexities of the twentieth century with the insight and passionate intellectual integrity of Hannah Arendt. She was irresistible drawn to the activity of understanding, in an effort to endow historic, political, and cultural events with meaning. Essays in Understanding assembles many of Arendt's writings from the 1930s, 1940s, and...

Tracing the gradual evolution of revolutions, this title predicts the relationship between war and revolution and the crucial role such combustive movements play in the future of international relations. It looks at the principles which underlie various revolutions, starting with the examples in America and France.

Hannah Arendt's last philosophical work was an intended three-part project entitledThe Life of the Mind. Unfortunately, Arendt lived to complete only the first two parts,Thinking and Willing. Of the third, Judging, only the title page, with epigraphs from Cato and Goethe, was found after her death. As the titles suggest, Arendt conceived of her work as roughly parallel to the threeCritiques of...

In The Promise of Politics, Hannah Arendt examines the conflict between philosophy and politics. In particular, she shows how the tradition of Western political thought, which extends from Plato and Aristotle to its culmination in Marx, failed to account for human action. The concluding section of the book, "Introduction into Politics," examines an issue that is as timely today as it was when...

Hannah Arendt was one of the most important thinkers of her time, famous for her idea of 'the banality of evil' which continues to provoke debate. This collection provides new and startling insight into Arendt's thoughts about Watergate and the nature of American politics, about totalitarianism and history and her own experiences as an emigre. Hanna Arendt: The Last Interview forms part of a new...

Responsibility and Judgment gathers together unpublished writings from the last decade of Arendt's life, where she addresses fundamental questions and concerns about the nature of evil and the making of moral choices. At the heart of the book is a profound ethical investigation, "Some Questions of Moral Philosophy," in which Arendt confronts the inadequacy of traditional moral "truths" as...

Presents a philosophical meditation on what warfare does to us. This book examines the reasons soldiers act as they do. It explains the attractions of battle - the adrenaline rush, the esprit de corps - and analyzes the many rationalizations made by combat troops to justify their actions.

Hannah Arendt is considered one of the major contributors to social and political thought in the twentieth century. This title includes selections from her major works, including "The Origins of Totalitarianism", "Between Past and Future", "Men in Dark Times", "The Jew as Pariah", and "The Human Condition", as well as shorter writings and letters.

The Origins of Totalitarianism is an indispensable book for understanding the frightful barbarity of the twentieth century. Suspicious of the inevitability so often imposed by hindsight, Hannah Arendt was not interested in detailing the causes that produced totalitarianism. Nothing in the nineteenth century?indeed, nothing in human history?could have prepared us for the idea of political...